Illinois Blues: Pat Quinn’s final hours . . .

In his unsuccessful 2014 bid for re-election, then-Gov. Pat Quinn vowed that sweeping changes had cleaned up an unwieldy anti-violence program, but new findings show that widespread problems persisted for two years longer than previously known.

The findings emerged in a “confidential draft” the Tribune obtained of a new, highly critical audit — nearing release — that focuses on a high-profile issue in the last gubernatorial election.

According to the draft, the state auditor general’s office found that bread-and-butter grant protocol was abandoned, leading to sketchy oversight riddled with missing documentation, questionable spending, unclear results and unspent money yet to be returned to state coffers. In one case, auditors discovered, a private agency filed for bankruptcy less than four months after getting more than $583,000 in state money.

Which pretty well sums up political life in a Blue State.

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See: Illinois Blues: How the Ruling Party Talks to Voters. As e-book, $1.49, paperback $5 at Lulu Books.